The General Elections Commission (KPU) has announced that it will enable candidates to utilize individual protective devices (PPE) and hand sanitizer as project props during the 2020 simultaneous regional elections in December.
KPU chairman Arief Budiman said that prospects would be enabled to print their faces and names on hand sanitizer bottles, masks and face guards.
” Candidates generally use T-shirts or hats [as campaign props], however [this year] we ' ll also allow the usage of hand sanitizers and masks,” Arief said on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com
He stated the idea about utilizing PPE as campaign props came from the House Ministry and had been authorized by members of Legislature Commission II supervising house affairs on Monday.
According to Arief, throughout Monday ' s meeting, members of Commission II had actually also asked the KPU to increase the variety of individuals permitted to go to physical mass projects to 100 from 50.
The House Ministry ' s acting director general for local administration advancement, Safrizal, expressed the hope that the decision to utilize PPE as campaign props would help suppress the spread of COVID-19 during the elections.
” If all prospects use masks as campaign props and each voter receives 2 masks, it suggests around 210 masks will be distributed to the general public,” Safrizal said.
” It would contribute significantly to decreasing the COVID-19 transmissions threats,” he added.
Arief said members of your house had recommended the KPU to make the fight versus the COVID-19 pandemic the main theme of the election projects.
” We expect prospects to integrate techniques to combat COVID-19 in their visions and objectives,” he stated.
Critics have advised policymakers to press back the elections to 2021 over worries the COVID-19 outbreak might continue late into the year– and even beyond it– and put citizens and election organizers at risk of contracting the illness.
They also revealed issue about low citizen turnout should the break out in the nation show no indications of abating, thus preventing individuals from appearing at polling stations.
However, the KPU firmly insisted that health protocols and their stringent implementation would be sufficient to protect citizens and KPU officers from infection during the elections, which will be held all at once in the country ' s 270 areas, with polling day set up for Dec. 9. (nal)
